Omar ibn said autobiography examples

The autobiography of Omar ibn Said, the only known narrative by an American slave written in Arabic, is now on digital display at the Library of Congress.

The manuscript and more than 40 other related documents were obtained by the library in and provide a unique perspective on the history of slavery in America.

Said was an educated Muslim man living in West Africa before he was captured by a large army and taken to the U.S., where he was sold in Charleston, South Carolina, according to Ala Alryyes, a professor at Queens College CUNY.

Said escaped and ran north, where he was arrested near Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was purchased by the governor’s brother.

"His first few years of slavery in South Carolina were miserable," Alryyes tells Here & Now's Lisa Mullins, "but after he escaped, his life became e